Charlotte Talks: A Glimpse Into Small-Town America With James And Deborah Fallows

Travel 100,000 miles around the country and you’ll find that rural America isn’t necessarily in decline. James and Deborah Fallows took that trip and share what they found.

There's a common narrative that often comes out of rural America – one of communities in decline. But James and Deborah Fallows have found a much more vibrant picture of America's small towns than we usually hear in the national media.

James and Deborah Fallows flew across the country in a single-engine plane to document the stories of some of America's successful small towns.

They join Mike Collins to talk about what they learned when they flew into what's often described as "fly over country," and about the common threads they've found in some of America's successful small towns. And in our increasingly divisive political landscape where the urban-rural divide has only deepened in the midterm election, what can we learn from these communities?

GUESTS

James Fallows, correspondent for The Atlantic magazine and Co-Author, Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey Into the Heart of America

Deborah Fallows, linguist and writer, and Co-Author, Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey Into the Heart of America

Map of the small and mid-sized towns and cities visited by the Fallows.